Culturing of cells of various types has become a routine process in many laboratories. Cells are grown to harvest compounds, to test for various sensitivities to potentially toxic compounds and even to provide tissue for gratis. More recently, cells of different types have been co-cultured on opposite sides of a microporous membrane for the study of interactions between one type of cell and another, particularly in the study of inflammatory responses.
Representative references to the co-culture of cells include: Magnum et al., In Vitro Cell Dev. Biol. 26:1135-1143 (Dec., 1990) describe a "Co-Culture of primary Pulmonary Cells to Model Alveolar Injury and Translocation of Protein"; and Madara et al. in J. Tissue Cult. Method. 14:209-216, (1992) report "A Simple Approach to Measurement of Electrical Parameters of Cultured Epithelial Monolayers: Use in Assessing Neutrophil-Epithelial Interactions." Both of these papers with the references therein, hereby incorporated by reference, report a technique for growing cells of two different types on opposite sides of a suspended microporous membrane. Madara et al. provide a detailed report of a trans-membrane co-culture study. Madara et al. also describe modifications of a commercial cell culture insert by adhesively bonding a machined polycarbonate ring onto the underside of the insert to facilitate the growth of monolayers on both sides of the membrane. These modifications of an existing product described by Madara et al., provided them with a way to conduct an experiment. However, adhesively bonding separate tings on to the bottoms of cell inserts is both tedious and a potential source of leachable materials from the adhesive. Additionally, researchers using devices assembled from modified existing parts likely spend nearly as much time modifying the devices as they do conducting their studies, thus reducing their productivity. The modified devices generally do not have the refinements that a purpose built item can incorporate after an analysis of needs and problems, further inhibiting productivity. Since there is increasing interest in the study of cellular interactions, there is a need for a ready-to-use trans-membrane co-culture system to facilitate the research in this area.